Hubbard’s Marina Fishing Report

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In Shore
The sheepshead and black drum love this milky water that we’ve had this past week behind that super strong cold front. These fish seem to thrive in that muddy, chilled, and turbulent water as it flows in or out of the passes. Cut oysters are still our favorite bait, but barnacles, fiddlers and small pieces of shrimp work too for the sheeps. For the big drum, our favorite bait is a small crab and often dead seem to work best sitting still and stinking on the bottom. The trout action is still focused at night along the dock lights or street lights of the bridge and the live shrimp are the best bait choice there unless you like to throw artificial then it’s a DOA shrimp or Mirror Lure mirror dean. Snook are a little more sporadic due to the dirtier than normal water but Christian Piccon found some using his Glad Snooker Jigs or Gsj’s that are basically a modified large buck tail lure bounced along the bottom.
Near Shore

The bite behind this front has gone to complete crap near shore. These cold fronts get the fish excited as they sweep down and across the gulf but once through the wind, waves, and temps all go nuts. This stirs up the waters and gets fishing moving, but the muddy waters left in its wake takes time to clear up, pressures take time to stabilize and fish take time to get used to the new temps. Unfortunately when we get strong fronts it can day 3-5 days or more to settle out. Well this past week’s strong front we had 20+ foot waves and the water is taking its time recovering and then we get another front? The fishing will not recover till the chocolate milk colored water dissipates, hopefully early or mid-week next week! Basically this week’s near shore fishing report is one word, JUNK!
Offshore

We haven’t been offshore since our 39 hour last weekend since the Flying HUB 2 is out of the water getting new jack plates, bottom paint and more adjustments. However, this past weekend’s 39 hour went very well. It was a little bumpy ahead of that super strong front but we beat most of the weather and still caught a nice pile of fish. It wasn’t like our 44 hour when we filled all the boxes but it was a steady bite and the more experienced anglers on board had no problem filling their snapper and amberjack limits. Even the beginning 39 hour anglers had a great catch with tuna, red grouper, kingfish, mangroves, vermillion, yellowtail, and some big amberjack.
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Tampa Bay Ferry and Taxi News
We have some great events going on this weekend in our area! Avoid traffic and parking concerns by joining us on the Tampa Bay Ferry!
First big even is the Johhny Kellar Inshore Fishing Tournament going on at Gators on the pass put on by Old Salts fishing club.
We also have the Madeira beach Block party going on at the Infinite Descent dive shop on Madeira way! You can get there by getting off at ROC Park or Madeira beach municipal with a little walk, from ROC Park you wouldn’t have to cross the street.
Along the way, you may also want to get off for a relaxing lunch/dinner at any of the wonderful restaurants at or in the vicinity of our ferry stops. Then get back onboard as you continue on to your destination while cruising the beautiful intercostal waterways of the Gulf Beaches.
As a reminder, parking is free at our Madeira Beach Marina and Jungle Prada stops. We look forward to seeing you!
Don’t drink and drive, drink and let us take you on the boat! The water taxi by Hubbard’s Marina is the coolest way to get home after some time at the beach bars.
Keep in mind that the ferry does allow alcohol, pets, and anything you need for the beach so pack a cooler and come catch a cruise.
Going to be a gorgeous start to the weekend, and shouldn’t be getting nasty until Sunday night. Should be a picture perfect Friday afternoon, Saturday and Sunday to get out on the protected back bays aboard the Tampa Bay Ferry and Water taxi. To see the schedule, map, and the stops with addresses check out this info on our website: http://www.tampabayferry.com/madeira-beach-taxi-route/
Did you know that Tampa Bay Ferry and Taxi offers a private taxi service, if you’re having a dinner party and want our boat to come pick you and your guests off to take you to your favorite waterfront bar or restaurant simply contact us and we can set you up this private taxi service!
You can catch the ferry to many local restaurants, city centers, shopping areas, local beaches, and much more! It’s a great way to see the area and get to where you’re going without worrying about beach traffic or parking. To see all the special stops and the things to do at each stop visit this page on our new Tampa Bay Ferry and taxi website: http://www.tampabayferry.com/things-to-do/
Captain Jack’s Dolphin Corner

Very strange to see manatees still around our area this time of year, typically come the winter we don’t see them any longer but lately we’ve been spotting them on our dolphin tours inside the pass and at Egmont key! We presume it’s due to the mild winter we’ve had.

The Roseate spoonbills are dawning their very pink colors today thanks to the brine shrimp they eat and their mating plumage is coming in which turns the pinkish color better than their normal feathers. They are really unique looking and can be spotted around.

The weather makes fishing tough near shore due to the murkier waters, but what this does is it also gets the mullet running when this happens the dolphins really get excited and grouped up into large groups hunting those mullet and while they wait they tend to put on an aerial show.

Believe it or not we are seeing our first baby seabirds starting to hatch at Dog leg Key Island! The Great Blue herons are always the first to have their babies of the year and were seeing a few pairs of them sitting on eggs and a few eggs have already hatched into baby herons.

The truly amazing thing is were seeing baby brown pelicans this early in the year! Some people may not believe us, but were seeing it with our own eyes truly amazing to have them hatching their babies this early, but were happy to have them maybe the warmer than normal weather is sparking this early hatchlings and we hope the cooler than normal weather coming this weekend won’t negatively affect them.

Want to learn more about dolphins this winter? Check out the new great Johns Pass dolphin facts series on our Hubbard’s Marina YouTube channel to check out to see them all watch our dolphin playlist here: https://goo.gl/2mYjX
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